About CommForge2

CommForge2 is the course website for LAIS423/523, Advanced Science Communication, at the Colorado School of Mines. From here, you can link to student sci-tech blogs, read about the course, and comment on current events and stories. Welcome!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The Oredigger on Communication

There's an interesting, brief article in The Oredigger about the importance of communicating for engineers. Though this isn't a technical writing class, we are learning how to do different types of writing and communication for different audiences. This excerpt from the piece was particularly pertinent, I thought:

"Our final product is typically a written report," adds Lauren Evans '82, president of a Lakewood-based consulting firm called Pinyon Environmental Engineering Resources. "A lot of times the work is for a client who's not a technical person, such as a banker or a real estate developer, so we have to be able to communicate our findings and recommendations to them in a way they can understand." Moreover, she says, the report has to be persuasive. It's not enough simply to present data clearly; that data must also be placed into context and shaped into an argument. In other words, rhetorical skills are important for the engineer.

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About Me

Jen Schneider is an Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts and International Studies at the Colorado School of Mines. She studies communication and media in science, technology, and energy. And she teaches the course Advanced Science Communication, which is why this blog exists.